Over the past few months, you may have heard some chatter about a brand new social network called Pinterest. According to Compete, unique visitors to Pinterest.com increased by 155% just in one month, from December 2011 to January 2012.

In December 2011, Pinterest made Hitwises list of the top ten social networks, sitting at #5 and beating out big names like LinkedIn and Google+. As with any hot new social network that comes onto the scene, marketers are chiming in with, Can I use it for marketing? Absolutely, and this ebook will show you how. (Be sure to follow HubSpots pins for other marketing tips.)

WHAT IS PINTEREST & HOW DOES IT WORK?Pinterest is a social network that allows users to visually share, curate, and discover new interests by posting, also known as pinning, images or videos to their own or others pinboards (i.e. a collection of pins, usually with a common theme). Users can either upload images from their computer or pin things they find on the web using the Pinterest bookmarklet, Pin It button, or just a URL.

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A PIN an image added to Pinterest

PINBOARDa set of theme-based pins

PINNING the act of visually sharing content

One can browse through the items other users have pinned and like, repin or comment on them. As with most other social networks, members are encouraged to interact with the content by reposting it, sharing others pins on Facebook and Twitter or via email, and even embedding individual pins on their website or blog.

Using a visual emphasis, the social network is very much focused on the concept of a persons lifestyle, enabling you to share your interests and preferences with others and discover those of like-minded people. As Pinterest put it, this is a social network meant to connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting.

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REPINreposting somebody elses pin

PIN IT BUTTON

button that can be placed on websites to facilitate sharing on Pinterest. Pins added using the Pin It button link back

to the site they came from.

PINNERthe person who does the sharing

1 TRAFFICAny business that relies on driving a high-volume of website traffic to increase sales, should consider joining Pinterest. In fact, early research indicates that Pinterest is more effective at driving traffic compared to other social media sites, even Facebook.

In October, the website of Time Inc.s Real Simple magazine got more traffic from Pinterest than Facebook. (source)

Eye glass retailer Warbly Parker reports that 11% of their social traffic is coming from Pinterest compared to 18% from Twitter. (source)

After blogger Kate Bryan started pinning her work, she has had more than 10 million page views and has attracted 16,000 blog subscribers. My top 10 traffic referring URLs are all Pinterest, says Kate. (source)

WHY DOES PINTEREST MATTER?

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Using HubSpota marketing analytics, we are able to compare the two sources and how they impact our business goals.

In February 2012 Pinterest has been driving more referrals to HubSpots blog than Google+. This insight proves that Pinterest presents a serious challenge to other social media channels and offers a competitive advantage to businesses that have started leveraging its potential.

Any business that relies on driving a high-volume of website traffic to increase sales, should consider joining Pinterest.

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1,300

1,350

1,400

1,450

1,500

1,550

1,600

Google+ Pinterest

Visits

Google+ Pinterest

Visits to Blog.HubSpot.com, Feb. 1-14, 2012

2 LINKSIf you are using the Pin It button on your pages, every single one of your pins will include a link back to the source. That is why HubSpots blog has accumulated more than 640 links from Pinterest in just two weeks. However, these are no-follow links and cannot be used to directly impact your SEO strategy. Yet, they still provide marketing value because they allow pinners to encounter your content and visit your pages in just one click.

3 LEADSLastly, Pinterest will soon start contributing to lead generation. So far, HubSpot has generated a few leads from the new social network and well keep a close eye on how that number changes.

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This is a screenshot of HubSpots Link Grader tool, which is part of our all-in-one marketing software. Learn more about HubSpots software.

This is a screenshot of HubSpots Sources tool, which is part of our all-in-one marketing software. Learn more about HubSpots software.

4 SOCIAL SHARINGPinterest enables users to log in using their Twitter or Facebook profiles, connectivity that is critical for social media success. These sites cant get away with being a silo, and Pinterest has recognized that out of the gate.

The site now connects with Facebook, according to a recent Open Graph announcement, enabling users to automatically post new pins to their Facebook feed for others to see. This means more eyes from other channels get access to your pictures. However, remember that you still cannot connect Pinterest to your Facebook business page.

When members are browsing through pins, they will also have the ability to share posts through Facebook, Twitter or email. This feature is great to boost social sharing and get your evangelists to spread the word about your brand.

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Whats particularly fascinating about Pinterest is that while in beta, it is already making money. Thats especially surprising for a social networking site. Whats even more interesting is that the way its monetizing is not based on advertising or subscriptions.

If your website is using an affiliate program, you should take note, because that is how Pinterest is making its dough: by taking a cut of your sales from pinned traffic. Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic, explains:

They partnered with a firm called SkimLinks, which automatically scans through every link posted on the site to see if it goes to a retail site with an affiliate program. If it finds that kind of link, it secretly adds an affiliate code that ensures Pinterest will make some cash from sales that derive from that link.

This in of itself might not be bad practice, but the fact that Pinterest hasnt disclosed this information outright definitely is. Many bloggers and marketers out there are complaining about the lack of communication from Pinterest on its business model.

HOW DOES PINTEREST MAKE MONEY?

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HOW TO CREATE A PINTEREST ACCOUNT & GET FOLLOWERS

CHAPTER2

Surprisingly enough, user access to Pinterest still operates under an invitation-only basis. That being said, you can request an invitation, and Pinterest doesnt exactly seem to be very stingy about granting requests. Visit www.Pinterest.com, click Request an Invite, and enter your email address to be notified when you have access to create your account. Or you can ask a friend who already has a Pinterest account to invite you, a much quicker way to gain access than waiting for Pinterest to grant your request

Surprisingly enough, user access to Pinterest still operates under an invitation-only basis.

Be sure to register your account with the same email address you use for your business Twitter account so you can easily share your new pins through your Twitter account, too. Once you receive an invitation to sign up for Pinterest, youll want to sign up through the Twitter option, not the Facebook option. This will enable you to tie your Pinterest account to your business Twitter account, not your personal Facebook profile. Currently, Pinterest doesnt offer a connection to Facebook business pages.

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Once your account is activated, optimize your Pinterest profile under the settings tab. Choose your company name as your username and complete your profile information, including a company description, logo, and a link to your website.

Be sure you keep Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines checked to OFF, so your profile can get indexed in search.

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company name

logo

briefdescription

links

As with any site that is built around content curation, pinners (Pinterest users) must be especially cognizant of citing the sources of their individual pins. And while Pinterest makes no direct statement that marketers cannot use the social network for promotional purposes, the site does discourage blatant self-promotion:

PINTEREST ETIQUETTE

Coupled with Pinterests lifestyle vision, this should encourage marketers to find creative ways to promote their brand on the network and truly jive with its vision and user base. In other words, businesses should use the social network to showcase the lifestyle their brand promotes. If youre a shoe vendor, a pinboard of the shoes you sell wont cut it. A pinboard of a few of your shoes interspersed with images of places those shoes could take you, however, is the direction you should be thinking. AARPs Pinterest account features a pinboard called Quotes to Live By, which is a great example of a business using Pinterest to promote the lifestyle of its brand.

Avoid Self PromotionPinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project youre proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.

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HOW TO BUILD YOUR PINTEREST FOLLOWINGOnce you get started, youll want to create a few pinboards before you start trying to build your Pinterest following. Just like any social network, building reach via a follower base is key to long-term sustainability for that network as a traffic and lead source.

This way, new followers will have a reason to follow your pins; its the same reason why you would populate a brand new blog with a few posts before you start promoting it.

However, Pinterest functions a little differently than the typical follower world we know in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. For example, on Pinterest, there are two follower options a user can take when someone likes a piece of content he or she found. A person can follow a specific board by a Pinterest user or a users account. Whats the difference?

When following a board you only will be notified (via your stream) when a user pins a new piece of content to that board. When following a user, you will be notified every time a user pins content to any of his or her boards. Due to these differences a Pinterest users board might have more followers than the user herself! So how can you create a strategy to increase followers at both the account and board level?

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MAKE THE BEST BOARDS ON A SPECIFIC TOPICBy taking this approach, you increase the chances of your board attracting followers who are passionate about a specific topic. Create resourceful boards based on a few core keywords that you already use in your SEO strategy.

Committing to create the best board on a topic means being ready to promote other users pins to enhance your collection.

PROMOTE T

HROUGH

OTHER CHA

NNELS

The fastest w

ay to jumpst

art your

Pinterest pr

esence is by

promoting

it through o

ther platform

s. Add the

Pinterest fol

low button to

your websi

te.

Promote you

r presence o

n Pinterest

through your

other socia

l networks,

such as Face

book, Linked

In, Google+,

and Twitter. C

onsider laun

ching a

Pinterest co

ntest and wri

te a blog po

st

to promote

it.

ENGAGE WITH OTHERS PINSStart following users you think

would want to follow you back. Like

and comment on otheir pins. When

someone sees you interacting

with his or her content, they might

check out your account and choose to follow you.

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HOW TO USE PINTEREST FOR MARKETING

CHAPTER3

As with any other social network, Pinterest offers a range of activities you can initiate to market your company to a new audience. The goal here is to gain brand recognition, drive traffic to your website and be successful at converting the new visits into leads. Lets get your creative juices flowing with this list of ideas for using Pinterest as part of your social media marketing mix.

Feature Visual Content

Pinterest is a visual social network, so you will need to create a pinboard that highlights some of your best visual content.

A lot of big brands are taking notice of the power of online visual content for marketing and the emotions images elicit in readers. Instagram is one platform that has contributed to this movement and enabled real businesses to leverage photos as a an inbound marketing mechanism.

Get your creative juices flowing with this list of ideas for using Pinterest for marketing.